Ice Cream Helmets & Blue Jays in Baltimore (4-10-10)

From the back of the “backpack” line, this was our first view into this modern yet classic ballpark:

Tim really matured last season to the point where I feel comfortable arriving early for batting practice. So that is just what we did. We arrived just as the gates opened. But, like the other non-season ticket holders (or people who bought “season” tickets on the secondary market), we were stuck in the CF bleachers and the RF flag plaza until the rest of the stadium opened at 5:30.

Here is a (good of Tim and bad of me) self-portrait as we watch out over the Orioles portion of BP.

We ran around a little on Eutaw Street, but mostly hung out in the CF bleachers before the rest of the stadium opened. But Tim, still at only 4 years (not even 4.5 yet), is still too small for me to feel very comfortable in an active BP homerun zone.

At this point, we’re more of the watch-it-from-down-the-baseline type of guys. So the second the main part of the stadium opened, we headed toward the 3B side. I was hoping to run into newly traded former-Mariner Brandon Morrow, who I wanted to thank for his 3 years or service and wish him good luck in Toronto. But he had pitched the night before and we never even saw him on the field at this game.

One of my goals for this season is to try to get more pictures with players. I’m not a big autograph guy. But I like to get in an autograph line by a dugout and ask for a picture when we get to the front. A Brandon Morrow picture was top priority, but it didn’t work out.

As we circled around home plate, I saw Cito Gaston signing autographs at the home plate end of the Jays’ dugout. We headed over there. But he stopped just as we were about 20 feet away and he started walking toward the the batting cage.

I called out, “CITO!”

And when he spun and looked at us (Tim was up on my shoulders looking cute as a button, no doubt), I pointed to a baseball laying on the ground a couple feet from the Jays’ manager and I asked something to the effect of, “Anyway, my boy can get that ball?” And here is how it played out…

As I called out “CITO!”, we were at the beginning of the red arrow and he was approaching the “O” in “Opening” painted on the grass. The ball was on the ground where pictured. As he approached the ball and it was obvious he was getting the baseball for us, we were standing at the red “X.” One problem, there was a big screen in front of us. So we walked down to the end of the screen and I leaned out and bent my glove arm around the screen in a basket for him to set the ball into. After picking up the ball, he walked about 3 feet toward us and then threw it. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to catch it leaning over with Tim on my shoulders and my arm bent around the screen, but it all worked out perfectly. And just like that, we were in business for 2010. One baseball.

Thanks, Cito!

Often times, Tim wants to go explore after we get a baseball. He likes to leave the rest for other people. But today, he was so excited he yelled, “Let’s try to get another baseball!”

So we headed off toward the group of Jays pitchers down the 3B line in the outfield. I was still looking for Brandon Morrow. As we passed 3B, Edwin Encarnacion…

…was fielding grounders — not fungo grounders, BP hitter grounders. As we passed him, he sat back on his heals and butchered a hot grounder smoked off of the bat of one of his teammates. I shouted out, “Edwin, that ball is no good. We’ll take it!” He threw the ball over toward the bucket and then turned and looked at us. He gave the “hold on a minute” finger, which is always a good sign to get from a MLB player.

A few minutes later, he fielded a ball, turned and fired it to me, and we had our second baseball of the season, and last of BP. It was time to explore.

Thanks, Edwin!

I have taken a lot of panoramas of Camden Yards — see here — but almost all of them (or better yet, all of them), are from various spots on the right side of the diamond – CF bleachers, 1B foul, behind home plate. Nothing in LF or the 3B line. So that is where we headed.

Tim led the way through the seats in the sections above cross aisle that rings the field level seats at Camden Yards…

…our first stop was Section 77, Row 1, Seat 1:

Next, Tim walked the back row all the way out to section 87, the last section before the bullpens. Then he came down to the first row, where I took this beauty at Section 87, Row 1, Seat 16:

Between the field, the bullpens, the ivy on the batters eye and the Warehouse, this is one of my favorite panoramas that I’ve taken at any ballpark.

Next, it was time for a very, very special treat. He headed out to the concourse and walked behind third base where a stadium attendant took this picture of a very happy father and son team:

Yes! Orioles ice cream helmets at Camden Yards! In case you are new here, read this and this to see why we were so excited. I do not have confirmation that our grassroots campaign had anything to do with getting ice cream helmets at Camden Yards, but my guess is that it did. A lot of really cool people helped me on the mission and I think it was hard for the Orioles to ignore the people. Power to the people!

We enjoyed the spoils of victory from our ice cream seats along the 3B line, right about where Encarnacion tossed us a baseball about 1/2 an hour before.

Here’s an excited boy with his first ice cream helmet of the season and first ever at this ballpark:Tim set his on the wall and savored it as we watched more batting practice…

…it was a great way to relax before the game.

I wanted to get a special picture to commemorate this special occassion…

…so I brought one helmet from each team at whose home stadium Tim and I have had the pleasure of enjoying an ice cream helmet. I tried to do an ice cream helmet panorama, but it didn’t come out right. So I cut the bottom row of helmets out of the two side pictures and put them along the bottom of what was supposed to be the middle picture in the panorama. Still, I like how it came out

Its a good collection that I look forward to adding onto this season.

All sugared up, it was time for Tim to get some pre-game exercise. Off to the play area…

The wood play fort the Orioles have had for (at least) the past several seasons was gone. So was the pitching station. But the bouncy house was still there and it was joined by a air blowing batting Tee that Tim loved. We went back several times throughout the game for more bouncing and more hitting.

After our first round at the play area, we headed out to RCF and bought tickets for four more Orioles games — including two Mariners games, a Red Sox game, and a White Sox game.

Then it was up several excalators into the upper deck for more exploring and panorama picture taking. Here is the view from the cross-aisle behind section 378:

And several sections over — the true “corner” where seat angles turn from infield to outfield seats, here is the view from the cross-aisle behind section 374:

We headed up the corner aisle and found ourselves on top of the world as the game finally started. Tim (and Woody from Toy Story) cheered on the players and Tim proclaimed…

…”I can see the whole baseball game from up here!”

The upper deck seats at Camden Yards really go provide a great view — from anywhere in the park.

We continued to explore by walking around the top row of the stadium from the LF corner to a little passed first base. And I took some action shots along the way.

Is it just me or does it look like Vernon Wells…

…is wearing pajama pants?

By the way, we were around section 350 when we took those shots of Wells. And a little closer to home plate when I captured this ugly swing by Lyle Overbay:

Speaking of section 350, here is the view from its back row:

Tim, whose nose and cheeks were a little red from (along with me) waging a battle with seasonal allergies all last week, gave our stadium tour a thumbs up…

…and with that, we decided to get hot dogs and march out to the RF foul seats to sit in the sun.

On the way, former Mariner Adam Jones hit this pitch to LCF for the second out in the bottom of the first:

…and while we enjoyed our hot dogs, Miguel Tejada (I think that’s Tejada, correct me if you think I’m wrong) grounded out to the start the bottom of the second inning.

Here was the view from our hot dog seats in Section 310:

While up there, Tim showed off the baseballs we got during BP…

1) Cito Gaston and 2) Edwin Encarnacion. Thanks again, guys.

We sat up here until the fourth and it was 0-0 at that point. We then went to bounce and hit a little more. While we were gone, the Blue Jays scored the first run of the game (and the winning run) on a bases loaded Hit by Pitch. Interestingly, the O’s intentionally walked Travis Snider to load the bases so they could then serve up a bean-ball to Jose Molina.

After bouncing and hitting, we headed to the flag courtyard where we witnessed the ugliest scene we’ve ever witnessed (close up at least) at a ball game, and definitely the ugliest ever at Camden Yards:

Two groups of drunks got into a huge brawl. There were knuckle-sandwiches handed out left and right, people thrown to the ground, and at least one lady who jumped in to try to break it up got pushed out of the way so more knuckle-sandwiches could be administered.

This fight was by far the lowlight, but all in all, this was the absolute worst crowd I have ever seen at Camden Yards. I attribute it to the game being the first weekend night game of the season. The hooligans in town who probably aren’t real O’s fans came out because of the novelty of baseball being back, and they were loud, rude, obnoxious and drunk. Again, not just these guy. These guys just took it the extra step, which hopefully landed them in the back of a paddywagon…I don’t know because I snapped a couple pictures and then got Tim the heck outta there.

Forced out of our beloved standing room area, we landed in the seats down the 1B line. Excellent seats where we stayed maybe two innings.

Somehow, maybe during the fight or maybe during a bathroom break, the Jays scored again and we missed it again. And, interesting, again it involved an intentional walk to Travis Snider to load the bases for Jose Molina. This time Molina hit an RBI single.

In the seventh, I took this shot of Adam Lind…

…who grounded out harmlessly.

In the bottom of the 8th or top of the 9th, we landed here, in some of the best foul ball seats around…

Nothing came our way, but the picture taking was excellent. Here, Jose Bautista pops out to catcher:

And on this pitch, I said to Tim, “Do you think he will hit a home run?” (“he” being Adam Lind). He didn’t. But he did drive the pitch into the gap for an RBI double:

…that’s one of the best action shots I’ve ever got between the hit ball captured in the air, Wieters jumping up to try to snag the ball and throw out the would be base-stealer, the runner advancing, etc., etc.

Before the bottom of the 9th, we got our classic Camden Yards behind home plate photo — taken by a nice usher whose wife just bought my same camera and loves it:

All there was left to do was attempt to get a nice rubbed up baseball from the umpire after the final out, a trick we learned last season from the “The Baseball Collector” himself, Zack Hample. We got 3 umpire balls in 2009 and it is a great way to end a great day at the ballpark.

Camden Yards is the most relaxed ballpark in the world. The ushers typically don’t care about anything. But the guy in the bright orange jacket two or three pictures up wouldn’t let us go down and take one of the many, many empty seats all around the umpire tunnel. If he’s let us go down, it was almost a guaranteed umpire ball. But it was a no go, so we decided to head out to RF to watch the bottom of the 9th from there before making our way to our car. But on the way out there, we decided to hit the rest room. And then we decided to fill-up Tim’s water bottle. We were in the outer concourse behind 1B, but none of the water fountains were working. So we kept walking to the next fountain.

Once we finally found a working fountain, we filled up Tim’s water bottle and headed back into the stadium to walk to RF on the inner cross aisle. But, little did we know, we were right back behind home plate again…but on the other side of the umpires tunnel. The usher over there was letting tons of people stand in the aisle, so we stood with them.

Down to the O’s final out, Nolan Reimold hit a towering pop-fly to short stop. That’s exactly the kind of final out you want, something (other than a strike out) that requires the umpire to stay at home plate. We were off with the crack of the bat.

We had to weave in and out of a few fans making their way up the stairs. But we reached the tunnel at the same time as Joe West. He gave baseballs to two little kids on the other side of the tunnel. I asked him if he had one to spare for Tim. He nodded and started to reach toward me. I extended my glove. Then he thought better of himself, denied my glove, reached high and gave it directly to Tim. An excellent move by Mr. West. That’s what 31-years experience will do for a guy.

Thank you, Joe West!

And thank you to the nice family whose daughter captured our post game celebration, complete with “Woody” from Toy Story:

On a final sad note, my normal “gamer” green cargo shorts are going to have to be retired. As you can see in that last picture, they tore wide open exposing the inside of my right front pocket to the world. This leave me in quite a bind as I have to decide upon a replacement pair by next weekend. These shorts have been my main game shorts (and bowling shorts) since 2007. They will be missed.

17 comments

You’ve got to love fights at the baseball game. Stunts like that ruin it for the rest of us. We have our fair share here in Milwaukee, too. That was also a smooth move on “Country” Joe West’s part. Nice entry, love the detail!

Nice job man! Gotta love ice cream helmets! Nice job on the ball trifecta too. You already passed our 2010 stats in just one game! It’s too bad that Tim had to be exposed to that. Thankfully, we haven’t run into anything like that down here. I know it happens, but we haven’t been eye-witnesses. Are you going to have a heart-wrenching fireplace ceremony like on Mr.Mom when you get rid of the shorts? Good luck this season!
Brian

I know that usher who didn’t let you down to the ump tunnel. His name is Lamont. He always used to give me a hard time until one day in 2006 when he happened to see CBS following me around the ballpark with a camera.

Anyway, what’s the deal with the backpack line? And have the season ticket policies changed?

BRIAN-
Thanks. Amazingly, Tim didn’t even notice the fight. He was standing behind a flag pole and was generally oblivious. We were probably 50 feet away so it wasn’t in his face…and I got him out of there pretty quick. It was pretty disappointing to see at Camden Yards. The ballpark deserves much better, an dusually gets it.

REDSOXKID15-
It was a definite win-win situation. A great night all around.

FRANK-
Indeed.

ZACK-
Thanks. I’ll avoid Lamont’s side in the future. We’ve gotten 3 ump balls so far at Camden Yards and they have all been on the 1B side of the tunnel, so no need to test Lamont. As for the backpack line, I’m not sure why, but they only had people checking bags at one of the gates. The other gates were wide open with little to no traffic. Same season ticket holder policy, as far as I know.

Todd,
Congratulations for Orioles Ice Cream Helmethttp://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=2
and the No. 9 rating of this blog on the latest MLBlogs leaders list as a proud subscriber!
Is the tree I see behind your backyard in the video a cherry tree in bloom? The cherry blossom season is almost coming to an end in the middle and southern part of Japan, while the rest is longing for the first bloom of this lovely Spring messenger.http://nao.mlblogs.com/

BRIAN-
Thanks, man. I am not sure how one gets onto the list. I was shocked last July when I made the list for the first time. But its fun to see our blog stick around in the top 50. So thanks for checking it out (that goes for anyone else reading this too) and best of luck for getting on the list. If I had anything to do with it, you’d be in there. I check in regularly at your page.

Wonderful pictures and entry. I hate to see fights at the stadium, I saw a terrible one where the guy felt several steps down and he was knocked out that they had to call a paramedics. Not good.
Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com

Your son is adorable!! I’m so glad I found this blog, I’ll definitely be coming back! I’m pretty good at getting autographs during Spring Training (if I may say so myself), but I’m working on the regular season. See living in Florida, I’d LIKE to go to Marlins games, but I can’t miss the Red Sox games, so it’s tough! Fantastic pictures, and a great read!
Elizabethhttp://redsoxgirl46.mlblogs.com

Todd,
How nice to have such a nice cherry tree blooming very year just behind your backyard! Hope to see you and Tim enjoy batting practice in the cherry blossom season next year. (If a Japanese family were living in a house with a floworing tree, especially with a cherry tree, they would take photographs of all family members with that tree in full bloom every spring as a record of family history)

ELIZABETH-
Thanks for stopping by, and thank for your comment regarding Tim. I think he’s pretty adorable too, but I’m biased on the subject. I visited your blog when it was featured on the main mlblogs page. Pretty impressive collection of pictures with Red Sox. Good luck getting to some games this season. If you have a DVR, record the Red Sox and watch it after you get back from the Marlins game.

NAO-
Maybe we’ll have to start that tradition. We take tons and tons of pictures, but very few family pictures because one of us is usually behind the camera. We need more family pictures.